The Tampa Bay Rays will go into the first full week of Grapefruit League action without a victory after the Minnesota Twins held them to just three hits Sunday, using eight pitchers to complete a 3-0 whitewashing of the defending American League East champions at Hammond Stadium.
Twins starter Dylan Bundy allowed the first batter he faced, Brett Phillips, to get a hit, but retired the next six in a row to complete his first spring start. Tampa Bay’s other two hits came in the fifth (a base hit by Jonathan Aranda off Danny Coulombe) and the eighth (a two-out triple by Ruben Cardenas against Lewis Thorpe).
Colby White, who went from Low-A to Triple-A in 2021, put up a zero in the first, stranding a pair of baserunners, and Chris Muller worked a scoreless second, but the right-hander a one-out triple to Luis Arraez in the third and two batters later, Miguel Sano drove him in with a base hit for a 1-0 lead.
Derek Fisher doubled Minnesota’s lead in the seventh with a solo homer off Carlos Garcia, and former Rays farmhand Jermaine Palacios made it 3-0 in the bottom of the eighth thaks to an RBI double off Miller Hogan.
The only Twins pitcher that dealt with any trouble Sunday was reliever Frank Garza Jr., who threw just one pitch before leaving due to being ill. Wladimir Pinto finished out the ninth to end the game.
Tampa Bay will return to Port Charlotte Monday to welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates to Charlotte Sports Park. Jalen Beeks will make his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2020, taking on Zach Thompson. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
